Hello!

Swatching

I'm not known for my swatching.
However, I really, really want to make best use of the Blend wool/bamboo yarn I snaffled from under your noses kept back from the last update.

The first pattern I tried was Hypoteneuse. I love this pattern and I wanted an easy knit, with holes (technical term).

I know, I know, I'm supposed to wash it and stretch it and dry it, but I decided that it wasn't what I was looking for (even though I love the pattern), and I'll save it for fatter yarn... maybe sock yarn, or merino or even for a proper laceweight.

I was determined to find a pattern to suit the yarn so I turned to my Interweave Knits stash and discovered Montego Bay in the Summer 2007 edition.

I swatched. I tried 5.5mm needles, then 4mm and eventually 4.5mm.
4.5mm is good.
But the Long-tail cast on I use for almost everything isn't loose enough. This is not a scarf I want to block. I like the unblocked crumplieness of it. The original pattern features a long fringe which adds weight, but I'm not a frilly, fringey sort of person so I'm not doing that bit, and even WITH blocking I think there would be a bit of an edge thing going on.

As you can see, it has already gone to the frog-pond. Click for big-ness.
But the stitch is lovely, and it is the sort of look I want, so I will cast on again... perhaps long-tail on huge needles. What would you suggest?

n

Remember to check back for An Announcement tomorrow.

Project Round-up.

I have been doing my Sunday morning blog-visiting!
This is just a sample of projects being knitted with Yarn Yard yarn at the moment.

Pixlkitten is knitting Clown Barf Socks in Rainbow sock yarn. This is a yarn which pops up from time to time in the Limited Editions. I can repeat it, but it's very dye-intensive to make so I don't do it too often -  grab it when you see it. I'm hoping she will tell me where the pattern is from... EDITED TO ADD.... see comments. I now have a red face. The link takes you straight to a pdf.

Cranfords are all over the place!
Rooknits has some lovely mitts. Hanne has been knitting them. So has Lin.
I know there are more.

Debbie has been knitting Go With The Flow socks from Interweave's Favorite Socks in Blue Jeans sock yarn.
She has just moved her blog to wordpress (and imported the old one) so remember to bookmark the new link.

AuntieNoo has knitted Express Lane socks, and done something rather intriguing with the heel to reinforce it....

Theoneknitwonder has knitted her Fruit Salad club yarn from last year into gloriously bright and scrummy socks. The perfect example of how a stitch here and there makes the yarn behave differently... this yarn knitted into stripes for me, but I think I like hers better.

Gordoungirl has knitted fabulous Jacobean socks. This is a flickr link so I hope it works. They don't seem to be on her blog.

NorthernLights (ravelry name) has made Nutkin socks...  this is a ravelry link
and here is a flickr link.

Franney has knitted a BSJ with her Firework Club yarn, and some Cranfords in merino too.

I'm sure there are lots more out there, so if you have posted photos please tell me where they are and we can all come and have a peek.

See you next week.
There will be an Exciting Announcement on Tuesday...

n

PS Remember Sock Club sign ups end today.

Kingfishers

I have just added a few things to the shop.
Not many, because I'm about to eat my Friday Night Pizza.

Half a dozen Kingfisher Glove Kits (or small person sock-kits).

Mitt yarn - Nightie.

Sock - Twirly

They are on page 2 of the Limited Edition section.
There may be a few more over the weekend if I get a minute.

My Club socks BTW have stats now.
One sock took 24g variegated yarn and 8g of solid, that's a 64 stitch sock, size 6 foot and fifty rows of "leg" up to but not including the rib, knitted toe-up.

n

PS

I will be dyeing the Sock Club yarns at the beginning of the week, so if if you'd like to renew or join please would you do so before Monday morning!

You can see the last Club yarn, the blue-purple one, in my blog posts over the last couple of days and the two before that are pictured a few days ago (just so you can get some idea of what you might expect). Click here to read more about the Club and follow the link to get to the right "shelf" of the shop, or just click on Clubs in the sidebar on the left hand side of the site.

Thanks!

natalie

Full disclosure.

Ah-ha! That got your attention, didn't it?

This is a photo-post.

Sally brought her shawl for a visit.

I haven't started on the veg patch yet.

The first one of the pair. Spot the tiny loopy bits I missed picking up on the toe.
With perfect timing, Helena provided me with the link to a sewn bind off when I got back from my first pub-knitting meet-up last night.

Blend in a ball.

Blend with pattern.

But, do you remember the issues I had with winding balls? (Go and read Feb 18th if you don't recall the details.)
Did I carry swift and ball-winder downstairs to wind properly?
Should I have learned from my previous mistakes?
Did the ball fly off the ball-winder while I was winding? - I swear, it FLEW.
Do I have a complete ball of yarn?

Do you know the story of The Three Bears?
I give you....

Daddy Bear, Mummy Bear, and Baby Bear.
Oh well.
No excuse for not swatching now.

n

A sandwich too far.

I was working last night until about nine, so I awarded myself the morning off today. A posting on ravelry seeking West Lothian knitting groups led me in turn to the SnB forum where two were listed, one of which met at Starbucks in MacArthur Glen at 09:30. So instead of throwing on my dye stained T-shirt and trousers this morning, I put on a Proper Skirt, and my Best Birkenstocks and set forth.
I was almost thwarted in this endeavour by the Berlingo which coughed pathetically at me when I turned the key, but it was eventually coaxed into life and we (me and my knitting) set off.

Well, I was the only knitter in the place. Granted, I arrived at 10:15, but undaunted, I ordered my vanilla latte and sat down with the sock. The light was excellent and I was determined to knit the short row heel.

Mission accomplished!

Yes, there is a small hole at the top, but that will be closed up when I weave in the ends.
However, in the interests of completeness, I will show you the other side too. I am really not sure what happened here, but in my own defence, the place was deserted until I was three quarters done with the knitting, and then a couple sat down next to me, the solitary knitter in the whole place.
Maybe they wanted a better look at the sock, who knows? Anyway, they sat down.

And then they opened up the sandwiches they had bought.

Egg sandwiches.

Now, as you know I have chickens in the back garden. I bake with eggs, I make cakes and pancakes and drop scones. I make quiche. Quiche from scratch including the pastry.
But I don't eat eggs.
Oh no.
Not at all.
The smell of an egg sandwich is enough to make me as queasy as map-reading in a moving vehicle.
But I was part way through the heel and determined not to stop. So I kept knitting.

I am really not sure what I've done, but it was fine until the Egg Sandwiches arrived. You can see that, can't you?

It could be frogged, but really, it's a sock. It's not a perfect sock, and I am a bit of a perfectionist, but at the end of the day, I want to wear them, not frame them.

So

I'm

going

to

use

that

most

specialised

of

tools

in

the

knitter

armoury.

n

Ten past Six

Sorry, just trying to squeeze in a few extras at the last minute.

Don't forget, order 2 x 50g if you would like a "full" skein.

Make sure you increase the items per page to 50 to see it all on one page.
I rarely do this, but I have kept one of these for myself...

Bamboo - Blend

It's for the anne hanson Hypotenuse Stole.

Sorry.... couldn't resist it.

n

Beep, ping, traaaaaling.

Set your watches, clocks, cellphones and computer alerts now!

There will be a Shop Update tonight at six.

There is BFL - Fantasia


There is Merino - Lavish


There is Merino Laceweight - Delicate


There is Merino Laceweight - Flutter


And we have Sock - Bunny


Sock - Rockpool


Sock - Glade

And that's just for starters!

Did you see "The No 1 Ladies (apostrophe) Detective Agency" last night? I feel some deep, vibrant African colourways coming upon me....

There has been sock knitting over the weekend.

With a short row toe...

... I'm about to do the heel...

... but first I have to attend to the yarn-heap.

See you later.

n

 

Easter Knitting

The Club yarn has been wound into balls.

The solid yarn is a standard 25g mini-skein, even though it appears much bigger in the photo. I must have wound it more loosely somehow.
I put them on the large wooden chest in the corner of the living room, and went away to do something else, and when I looked at them from a distance, I realised that the variegated one looked like a ball of rather zippy tartan!

Step back a couple of metres from your monitor and you'll see what I mean.

The sock is cast on and the toe is completed. It isn't perfect.
Somehow I ended up with 66 stitches not 64, so there was a bit of fudging to do, but now that its been fudged, I can't actually find the fudging, so that's okay. And there a couple of wispy loops where I have obviously not "caught" the whole of a stitch with my P3togs. This is what you get when you try to knit while watching "Mission impossible III", and "The Lake House".
It's not bad though for a first toe-up.

I never really mentioned this, I don't think, but when lots of people were talking about giving things up for Lent, I decided to stop adding salt to my food. You see, there could be a worldwide chocolate famine starting immediately and I wouldn't bat an eyelid, but a shortage of salt, Marmite, crisps and cheese would give me palpitations. So I just put the salt grinder in the cupboard, and there it has stayed. Have I missed it? Yes. Definitely. Have I cheated? Well, not at home, but I have had Fish and Chip Shop Chips twice in the last six weeks and I have asked them to add salt and vinegar, but that's my only "wobble". The grinder will probably stay in the cupboard.

See you tomorrow, I'm off to make French Onion Soup. With cheese on top.

n

Painting with colour.

I love a challenge. And sometimes I get more than I bargained for.
Sally, who I met at Edinburgh's City Knitty, has been knitting the most wonderful shawl with Yarn Yard laceweight. You can see the results on her blog.

This has been knitted at the same time as she has been writing her thesis... AND she's been moving house as well !
She had an additional challenge of her own - as if this wasn't enough - she finished it with just one metre of yarn to spare. We were e-chatting about what she was going to knit next and she asked if I could dye a colour to order. I'm always up for a new project, so I asked her to send me a sample of what she was looking for.

This is what arrived in the post!
She was after the second or the fourth colour block from the left.
As I said, I like a challenge...

Pretty close. But you need to see them together, really.

She hasn't seen them yet, so I hope she likes the result.

The yarn for the Merino Mitts has taken up a lot of time recently, but while I was dyeing these I decided to do some more laceweight.

and

and

... all these, and more, will be in the shop on Monday evening. Make a note in your diary, there is more sock yarn, more merino and a little fibre too.

I think it's about time I showed you last month's Club yarn.

Compare and contrast with the yarn from the month before - the one I learned (finally) to knit short row heels with.

And the one from the month before that...

I know that not everyone will adore every yarn, but I aim to push the limits a bit, and send you something which will make you scurry to those pattern books, something you can't buy anywhere else, something which moves those Comfort Zone Boundaries a little.
I hope I'm getting it right.

So what are you knitting this Easter weekend?

I'm casting on for toe-up socks, naturally. In Calorie-free Club yarn.  :o)

n